Leaders of Ganajagaran Mancha had called for a week of boycotting all sorts of Pakistani goods since police stormed the procession of Shahbagh Ganajagaran Mancha before the Pakistan High Commission at Gulshan.
Ganajagaran Mancha had held the demonstration to protest the adoption of a resolution in the National Assembly of Pakistan expressing concern over the hanging of notorious war criminal Quader Molla. The resolution in the Pak National Assembly grieved for the execution of this “Butcher of Mirpur,” who alone slaughtered around 350 human beings in 1971, and mourned over his “loyalty to Pakistan.”
Imran Khan, noted cricketer-cum-nephew of General Niazi, the commander-in-chief of the Pak invader army in 1971, too termed Quader Molla to be innocent. The response of Pakistan on the issue of our war criminals’ trial is frustrating.
But is it not more shocking that the police of our own independent and sovereign state could trample the protesters of Shahbagh under their boots, irrespective of gender, and hurl abuses like “Malaun er bachcha (Children of Hindus)” or “Nastik er bachcha (Children of atheists)”?
So, the non-violent movement of Shahbagh started to protest again. They were sad and angry. A calm but enraged Shahbagh held a demonstration meeting on December 20 where Shammi Haque, a female student of Daffodil International University, Ganajagaran Mancha leader Bappaditya Basu, theatre activist Nasir Uddin Yousuf Bachchu, and popular writer Muhammad Zafar Iqbal condemned police action and swearing on peaceful demonstrators.
Didn’t our Liberation War of 1971 pledge to establish a state free of all sorts of discrimination on the basis of religion-caste-creed-sex? It’s not a “crime” to be a “non-Muslim” under the auspices of our Constitution of 1972, neither is it a crime to be an agnostic or atheist per Article 39 of our Constitution which endorses freedom of conscience and expression.
The whole world should witness how the non-violent movement of Shahbagh is following the trails of doctrines of non-violence practised by exemplary leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and Nelson Mandela. As a young writer and activist, I considered myself blessed when Maruf Rassul, one of the pioneering organisers of Ganajagaran Mancha, declared the “Pak Commodities Boycott Week” on December 20 evening.
An injured Imran H Sarker, convener of Ganajagaran Mancha, was standing silently on the stage. To me, it was a history-making moment. I had heard many stories of Swadeshi movement and boycotting of luxurious foreign goods during the anti-British Imperialist movement in this sub-continent from my parents and grandparents, read many a classic novel of Bengali literature on this theme, and even saw scores of Bengali and Hindi period movies on Swadeshi movement.
This calm, but determined stance of youth in Bangladesh ultimately slaps on the buying of Western lobbyists by Jamaat-e-Islami, who are now shedding crocodile tears against “capital punishment” to safeguard the notorious war criminals’ lives. With all respect to UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillai, or UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, the youth of Bangladesh wishes to ask: Where were their tears for “capital punishment” when Saddam Hussain was hanged on Eid, or when drone attacks killed millions of children in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Can the UN return the three million civilians slaughtered in 1971? Can it give back the honour of 200,000 to 400,000 raped women? To answer the argument of advocates for war criminals like Dr Asif Nazrul or David Bergman, that standards have not been maintained, we do humbly remind them that our ICT trial maintained much more legal procedure than the Nuremberg trial.
The USA has awarded capital punishment to 39 criminals this year. Can the EU, the UN, and the USA bring back the innocent people killed at the hands of extremist Jamaat-e-Islami cadres in the past months? What about the hundreds of Hindu temples torched, the thousands of trees chopped down, and the killing of a number of police and grassroots Awami League activists by Jamaat cadres?
Obviously, I do not endorse a one-party election. Since the caretaker government of 2006-2008, the ruling party seems at unease with the very concept of a caretaker government.
But the invitation for joining the “all party” government for the election was made to the main opposition BNP. Did this government not allow free and fair polls in five city corporations, and accept its defeat gracefully, despite the playing of the religion card by the opposition?
On the other hand, the government should understand the sentiment of the youth in Shahbagh, who are reviving the war cry of 1971, “Joy Bangla,” without any expectation from the ruling party. Not all of them are AL supporters.
The Shahbagh movement took a Swadeshi stance for a proud but developing nation in today’s open market and highly globalised world. As Mukunda Das sang: “Cherish the coarse cloth offered by your motherland/ Your poor mom can offer no more!”
